American Scientist

1 week ago | americanscientist.org | Jaime Herndon

Sally Ride is probably best known as the first American woman to go into space, with her mission on June 18, 1983. She was also the youngest American astronaut to fly into space, at the age of 32. In addition, she was also a physicist, educator, and science writer, but it wasn’t until she died at the age of 61 from pancreatic cancer that the public learned, at her request, that she was a lesbian.

3 weeks ago | americanscientist.org | Corey S. Powell

July-August 2025 Volume 113, Number 4 I AM A PART OF INFINITY: The Spiritual Journey of Albert Einstein. Kieran Fox. 336 pp. Basic Books, 2025. $30. Many physicists have achieved fame within their fields. A few have achieved fame among the general public. But none has ever risen to the kind of multi-hyphenate celebrity status enjoyed by Albert Einstein.

2 months ago | americanscientist.org | Jaime Herndon

Most people are familiar with air pollution and water pollution, but did you know there’s also light pollution? According to DarkSky International, light pollution is “the human-made alteration of outdoor light levels from those occurring naturally.” Light pollution can include lights that are too bright, light falling where it’s simply not needed, and confusing or excessive groupings of light sources.

2 months ago | americanscientist.org | Jaime Herndon

Wallace Stegner once called our national parks “America’s best idea,” and he was right about that. Our public lands (which include national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, monuments, and lands that are managed by the Bureau of Land Management) are important for wildlife, cultural preservation, recreation, and so much more. In 2024, the National Park Service reported a record high of visitors: 331.9 million, an increase of two percent from 2023.

Jan 23, 2025 | americanscientist.org | Brian Hayes

November-December 2001 Volume 89, Number 6 This column was published in the November–December 2001 issue of American Scientist. For an illustrated version, please download an alternative format. People count by tens and machines count by twos—that pretty much sums up the way we do arithmetic on this planet. But there are countless other ways to count. Here I want to offer three cheers for base 3, the ternary system.